Irreverent TV Program Taken Off Air in Moscow

A popular hard-hitting TV program has been yanked from the air in another sign of a conservative crackdown by the Soviet government, its anchors said today.

Alexander Lyubimov and Alexander Politkovsky, among the country’s most famous television personalities, said the program they founded, “Vzglyad” (“Viewpoint”), which has not been broadcast for the past two weeks, will not reappear in the foreseeable future in its familiar midnight Friday time slot.

“Officially it’s not a closing down, but we have been taken off the air temporarily for an undefined period,” Lyubimov said.

The show, which mixes commentary, investigative journalism and interviews with controversial figures, has become an irreverent symbol for the country’s anti-Communist opposition forces.

Politkovsky said the decision to remove his show from the air was in line with the government’s recent movement to the right.

“Vzglyad” became embroiled in controversy two weeks ago when it pursued plans to interview Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze a day after his stunning Jan. 20 resignation announcement.

When the government broadcasting agency pressured the journalists not to interview Shevardnadze, they invited two of his aides to appear on the show, but that episode was not broadcast.